UPS Really Sucks and should never be used to ship wine!

Victor_Hong · July 4, 2018, 2:27am

Last week, my relatives in China called Fedex customer service about a lost package, but they could barely understand the call-center MAGA redneck on the other end of the phone.

Anton_D · July 4, 2018, 2:33am

I think Jay should lawyer up!

J_a_y_H_a_c_k · July 4, 2018, 3:12am

If you cannot tell the difference between southern Indian accented English and northern Indian accented English, you should pay more attention, or get out more. It is quite obvious. My guess is that she was from Chennai or, if answering from one of the Mumbai call centers, was a transplant from the south.

Randy_Bowman · July 4, 2018, 3:18am

HELLO,

You do not ship your $200.00 per bottle case of wine ground in the middle of the summer or winter.
You have to be home to accept shipment or ship to a business where deliveries are early.
UPS is great here while FedEx sucks and vice versa. It’s your delivery person, not the company.
I’ll ship your wine FedEx ground for $75.00 or $70.00 UPS.

Who do you want to deliver your wine? You know who your delivery people are and what your relationship is with them. We have customers who provide keys to their delivery person so the wine is delivered and secured.

Albert_R · July 4, 2018, 3:26am

AGREE 100%! UPS_ _ _! They suck in South Florida. I just wish most wineries would give you the option to choose… I am 99% FedEx or no sale. Some of our regular/board favorite winery owners should take note…

Albert_R · July 4, 2018, 3:30am

I’ll pay the $5 all day long for FedEx in South Florida… Some wineries for several reasons won’t give you the option…

Randy_Bowman · July 4, 2018, 3:39am

Victor Hong:

J a y H a c k:

Please join my UPS boycott. They stink and they absolutely refuse to be of any assistance even when they are told that they screwed up.

It’s hot outside so I arranged for a wine shipment overnight by UPS so the temps would not damage it. BUT instead of getting it to me overnight, UPS “forgot” (their own term) the package in Kentucky and rescheduled the package for delivery the next business day. I was advised of this by email at 11:58 this morning, although UPS’s tracking information stated that they had rescheduled the delivery at 7:30 am due to “operating conditions” (I guess that’s their corpspeak euphemism for “we forgot”). By 12:15 pm, I was on the phone with someone complaining, who spoke with such a thick southern Asian accent that I could barely understand her. They said I would get a call back from customer service within an hour.

Having heard nothing in 90 minutes, I called a second time. They claimed to have no record of my first call and despite speaking first to someone in Asia for whom English was a distant second language at best and then to a supervisor after a long wait who seemed more conversant in the language of the shipper and the recipient, I was told that there was nothing that they could do - - - which is another euphemism for “there’s nothing that we will do for you because it is cheaper for us not to have appropriate backups in place to deal with the occasional and screw an occasional customer than to actually function in a responsible manner.” After giving them fair warning that I would make this post, I heard more corporate speak about logistics companies that occasionally make mistakes but that the complaint had to come from the shipper not the recipient (I had already alerted them but that’s not going to do any good because UPS is not going to do anything for them either).

You see, it’s just too expensive for us to have warehouses that protect the contents of shipments that would be destroyed by heat or cold when we screw up.

Yes, I know, I should have asked the winery to hold the shipment until November to reduce the risk, a mistake I will not make again, but I will also not make the mistake of ever voluntarily using UPS again. Please join me in that effort.

You should have conference-called me, for translation. I am Chinese, and was born in rural Arkansas, making me able to understand Southern Asian.
Oh, wait,…

Markus_S · July 4, 2018, 1:19pm

Question for you: WHY are you even shipping in 90-100 degree heat???

I don’t care if it’s “overnight”, as supply chains and logistics are not perfect instruments.
And isn’t there enough wine in your massive cellar to not need something “right this instance”?
C’mon, man!

David_Bu3ker · July 4, 2018, 1:26pm

Bob_Davis · July 4, 2018, 1:27pm

Shipping in the middle of summer was why I dropped the Jaffurs wine club a long time ago.

ClarkstonMark · July 4, 2018, 1:47pm

Shipping wine on Monday when the 4th of July is Wednesday is crazy.
Jay - when you write the CEO of UPS an email, ask them how many workers took vacation this week, and how many called in sick?
But I am guessing you had a reason why you wanted the wine yesterday, and I am curious what that reason was. Did you need it for a 4th of July tasting?

Michae1_P0wers · July 4, 2018, 1:57pm

This.

John_Davis · July 4, 2018, 2:19pm

I think most of us have a shipping nightmare-esque story. My issues in the past have been with FedEx but I believe there are likely local differences. And as said before, often it is the driver and not the company. After digging in to it a bit, I found out my repeated FedEx issues were entirely the driver’s fault. Of course, I got that from someone at the local Kinko’s as FedEx customer service obviously didn’t give a …

JD

J_a_y_H_a_c_k · July 4, 2018, 2:24pm

No, it was just not my best decision, but it is my wife’s favorite and her birthday is Friday so I tried to get It. It was also not $200 a bottle wine. Im not that stupid.

Yes, I shipped to a business. My issue is that they said that they just “forgot” to put the wine in a container some time between 3 am and 730 am and they made no effort to correct the error. I doubt my box was the only one they forgot. They made no effort to correct the error. If that was a winery, we would be all over them for bad customer service, but when it comes to mega multi ultra Corp, everyone blames the customer.

PS. - Victor: South Asia is not China. It is India, Sri Lanka, etc.

Victor_Hong · July 4, 2018, 2:27pm

I know. It was a joke.

Tom_G_l_a_s_g_o_w · July 4, 2018, 2:29pm

J a y H a c k:

ClarkstonMark:

Shipping wine on Monday when the 4th of July is Wednesday is crazy.
Jay - when you write the CEO of UPS an email, ask them how many workers took vacation this week, and how many called in sick?
But I am guessing you had a reason why you wanted the wine yesterday, and I am curious what that reason was. Did you need it for a 4th of July tasting?

No, it was just not my best decision, but it is my wife’s favorite and her birthday is Friday so I tried to get It. It was also not $200 a bottle wine. Im not that stupid.

Yes, I shipped to a business. My issue is that they said that they just “forgot” to put the wine in a container some time between 3 am and 730 am and they made no effort to correct the error. I doubt my box was the only one they forgot. They made no effort to correct the error. If that was a winery, we would be all over them for bad customer service, but when it comes to mega multi ultra Corp, everyone blames the customer.

PS. - Victor: South Asia is not China. It is India, Sri Lanka, etc.

you just realized your wife’s birthday was approaching? Speaking of which I’d better get to the card store quick, wife’s bday is Saturday.

Victor_Hong · July 4, 2018, 2:30pm

You are lucky that UPS did not destroy the evidence.
Oh, wait, different company…

Todd_Hamina · July 4, 2018, 2:31pm

June to September, no shipping.

Brian_Tuite · July 4, 2018, 3:01pm

When absolutely positively as to be there overnight the clear choice is FedEx. No matter what, you will receive your delivery.

David_Bu3ker · July 4, 2018, 3:39pm

I’ve dropped over half the wineries I was buying from that use FedEx. Too many issues. Too many hassles.

It’s a rotten choice no matter what.